China pressures the European iGaming industry

Regulations in the Chinese country put on alert the growing gambling sector in Europe, according to consultants

China.- European regulation could possibly be strengthened after pressure on China in the fight against illegal online gaming. That would cause the slowdown of iGaming industry in the occidental continent.

Paul Leyland, Partner at strategic consultancy firm Regulus Partners pointed to China as a threat for iGaming operations next year, in a speech at the KPMG Gaming eSummit in Malta this week. 

“One of the things we think we’re going to see from a geopolitical standpoint – and we’re already seeing the noises coming through – is China really not liking online gambling,” he said. The “noises” comes from recent news. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen revealed that they would stop delivering online gaming licences. The decision is directly related to pressure from China. The Philippines received similar pressure around POGOs industry.

“China hasn’t liked gambling, even its own regulated gambling, for some time and we’ve seen that with the sheer number of unregulated, land-based gambling operations China has disrupted across Asia, which has seen thousands of people arrested and hundreds of millions of dollars seized”, Leyland added. 

“We’re seeing a huge channel shift in Asian markets away from land-based points of payment to direct online. The Chinese government has noticed that, doesn’t like it and is already putting a huge amount of pressure on the Philippines. This is a level of pressure that China can exert pretty much globally and if you asked any politician anywhere in the world what do you like more, online gambling or China, it’s a really easy choice for them to make”, continued during his speech.

“So we think that geopolitical tension around China is going to keep bubbling up and will have some really interesting implications for the industry that we probably haven’t properly thought through yet”, concluded.